German Post in Turkey
Post Offices from 1.3.1870 to 30.9.1914
When the Postal Agency of the North German Postal Federation opened its
office in Constantinople on 1st March 1870 the Ottoman Empire stretched
from Bosnia across Bulgaria and the Near East to the borders of Persia,
across Mesopotamia and the Arabian peninsula, and included with Egypt and
Tunisia a large part of North Africa. The interests of the German Post
however were confined to Constantinople to which the Near East including
Lebanon and Palestine were added later.
Today Turkey covers an area of 780.000 sq. kms with about 42 million
inhabitants. If one adds the Lebanon and Palestine then this approximates
to the area in which the German Post Office in Turkey operated. If one
excepts Jerusalem these Offices were all in coastal cities.The average
climate corresponds to that found in southern Europe and was thus
thoroughly acceptable to Europeans. The population of the ports
encompassed the typical racial mixtures of the Levant.
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